Another First in the UK — The UK has had an outsized cultural impact on the world. From music to sports to literature... and now - MMS with Twitter. — Today, not only has Orange UK turned on Twitter SMS, but it has added a first-of-its-kind special enhancement.

The Pirate Bay Tracker Shuts Down for Good — In the fall of 2003, a group of friends from Sweden decided to launch a BitTorrent tracker named ‘The Pirate Bay’. It soon became one of the largest BitTorrent trackers on the Internet, coordinating the downloads of more than 25 million peers at its height.

Apple's Black Friday deals leaked? — One of our connects just hit us up with some intriguing Apple information. According to them, what you see detailed above is a shot of Apple's yearly Black Friday deals. It's reported to be something Apple will email out shortly.

Online Maps: Everyman Offers New Directions — SAN FRANCISCO — They don't know it, but people who use Google's online maps may be getting directions from Richard Hintz. — Mr. Hintz, a 62-year-old engineer who lives in Berkeley, Calif., has tweaked the locations of more than 200 business listings …

A new look for Google Translate — Today, we've launched three new features as well as a new look and feel for Google Translate — a service that helps people access information throughout the world by enabling them to automatically translate text and and web pages into their own language.

Respected developers begin fleeing from App Store platform — Apple's control over the App Store—which seems arbitrary at times—still frustrates developers. That much isn't a surprise, but some developers have become frustrated to the point that they have decided to simply halt iPhone development altogether.

An update to Google Earth for the iPhone — Just over one year ago, we unveiled Google Earth for the iPhone and iPod touch. Google Earth quickly became one of the most popular applications in the App Store, and after only six months, was the second most-downloaded free application overall.

Templates now available in Google Sites — I'm pleased to announce we just added a stocked gallery of site templates in Google Sites. Anyone can browse the public template gallery, and businesses using Google Apps each have a private area where employees can share site templates with coworkers.

MySpace Close To Acquiring iMeem — MySpace is in late stage negotiations to acquire music streaming service iMeem, we've confirmed from multiple sources. MySpace is on a bit of an acquisition spree - they acquired iLike, another music service, three months ago.

Times editor outlines plans for online charging — Micro-payments dismissed in favour of charging for 24-hour access to day's edition of the paper — James Harding, the editor of the Times, today gave the clearest indication yet of how News International is going to start charging for its journalism online.

The great Belgian iPhone robbery — Burglars in Antwerp make off with $3 million worth of smartphones — Over the weekend, someone used a fire ladder to climb to the roof of a huge warehouse in Willebroek, a Dutch-speaking municipality in the Belgian province of Antwerp, cut a hole in the roof …

Google's Sample Chrome Extensions Are Already Working — As we noted last night, Google looks to be on the verge of unleashing Chrome extension support in a major way. Not only does the home tab page on the new builds of Chromium (and the dev builds of Chrome) feature not-yet-turned-on links …

Facebook Integration With PS3 Becomes Official — This evening, Sony officially announced support for Facebook on the Playstation 3. While integration was first rumored last week, there is now an official video of the Facebook features which we've embedded below.

First Beta of Weave Sync add-on now available — We are excited to announce the first Beta release of the Weave Sync add-on. You can download it here. Once you have installed and connected, Weave Sync enables you to take your Firefox experience with you on your laptop, desktop and mobile devices.

T-Mobile Resumes Sidekick LX Sales — Remember the whole T-Mobile Sidekick fiasco? You know, the one where T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) lost a whole whack of user data... the whole deal went on, and on, and on... and on, and on... and then on some more. Crazy. — If you were affected …

Dell Streak MID landing 2010 on AT&T claims paper — Having been spotted in prototype form last month, Dell's Streak MID has received another shot of intrigue with Chinese rumor-monger Commercial Times claiming knowledge of both a manufacturer and a US carrier partner.